Commitments

Investing on one’s own requires commitments to be successful. We outline a few below. If you can’t commit, then you’re better off contributing to index funds or obtaining the services of a financial planner:

Time: Time well spent is the single most important commitment a self-directed trader must make. Avoid wasting your time staring endlessly at charts. Avoid spending more than a few minutes here and there in stock chats that are simply another form of social media. Generally speaking your available time will be divided into research, thesis formation, trading and journaling. Don’t worry about these topics if you’re not familiar with them. You will soon be.
Trading Setpu: You will need one or more computers with a full sized display. Mobile phone traders need not continue with this methodology. Virtually all trading tools and web applications are designed for larger screens because that’s mostly what active traders use. They are then downgraded for mobile. Mobile trading is ok when you know what you are going to trade, why you’re trading it and when you should trade it. But research is done on large screens. If you have only one computer then it should be fairly beefy by current standards and run Microsoft Windows. Virtually every tool out there is built for Windows first, then ported to MacOS, and finally to Linux (if at all).
A Reliable Internet Connection: This can’t be stressed enough and in this modern day and age its surprising how many people still put up with slow internet.
One or more brokerages: You will need at least one brokerage. It is recommended that the first brokerage be one of the mainstream, well established & reputable brokerages. You might do well to select a first brokerage that also houses any 401k or IRA accounts you own, since you are likely to be familiar with those. As you grow your portfolio into the seven figures and become more experienced, you will want to add brokerages. Some will be better for international trading while others will have the best options platforms. Some will offer access to financial assets others don’t.
One or more brokerage accounts: The methodology requires at least one brokerage account at one brokerage. In the long run, you may grow to have many brokerage accounts; do not be intimidated, it is not overwhelming. Why more than one account? We explain why when we discuss strategies. Most good brokerages make opening new accounts a breeze, and tax software (Turbotax for example) can easily handle many brokerage accounts.
Tax Software: Since you will be making money, you will need tax software. This is highly recommended. Unless you have a very complicated tax situation, tax software will be able to handle your taxes. For example flavors of TurboTax easily handle almost all life situations included trading various instruments, rental, employment etc. This author performs thousands of trades a year with various instruments, and has no problems with TurboTax. Ideally, choose a brokerage that is compatible with automated integration with your tax software. (If choosing Turbotax, we highly recommend selecting the desktop version, which means you will need at least one computer with Microsoft Windows).
A willingness to learn and adapt: Don’t be an old dog that can’t learn new tricks. The markets are always changing, and you will need to learn new things both from this methodology and from the markets. If you are incapable of learning, this methodology will not work for you. If you tend to hold your strong points of view strongly, learn to hold strong points of view loosely. The market feasts on opinionated traders.
Tools And Subscriptions: You will need a few tools and subscriptions. Some are free, some are paid. Be careful not to oversubscribe. It is a true statement that none of these tools in of themselves have minted multi-millionaires. If they did, the prices would be much higher than $99, $199, or even $1099 per month.